Sexual abuse and sports: 'So much shame, so much blame'

8:43 AM,
Feb. 25, 2013

Written by

EMILY LE COZ
The Clarion-Ledger

JACKSON, Miss. -- Former elite track cyclist Tammy Thomas of Mississippi today joins a small but growing group of athletes speaking out about a dirty little secret in sports: Sexual abuse not only happens, but happens frequently.

Thomas says she suffered years of sexual exploitation at the hands of her two cycling coaches in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

She revered her coaches and needed them to advance in the ranks, so she submitted to unwanted advances. "He sat down by me and put his hand on me and ?" things escalated from there, she recalls. ...